My two submissions for the Museo de la Palabra flash fiction contest. Neither one entered the finals, so I am allowed to e-print them, and, more importantly, four months after the submission deadline, I can conclude that flash fiction is not rushed fiction (which was exactly the case here; messed up flash fiction and speed writing I was taught at Oxford and which actually does help to overcome writer's block and kick off larger pieces of writing). There are some marvellous flash fiction collections (such as this one which was on our reading list during the first term at my writing course) and I applaud every writer, who has mastered fitting a story into one hundred words or less. Flash fiction, more than any other genre, seems easy, almost trivial in the reader's eyes. It is the exact opposite, though: a true art, worthy of those who have struggled their way through thousands of pages.
